The Black Hawk
The Black Hawk remains the world’s most versatile utility helicopter with strong international demand. With 4,000 flying worldwide in 36 countries and 15 million flight hours, including over 5 million combat hours, it’s a proven workhorse that the US Army and its allies will be flying for decades to come.
This remarkable aircraft has fought its way in and out of countless combat zones. It transports troops, saves lives as a MEDEVAC or casualty evacuation platform, delivers critical supplies to troops and emergency aid during natural disasters, and performs as an aerial firefighter and border patroller.
With digital avionics, powerful GE engines, high strength airframe structures and composite wide chord rotor blades, today’s Black Hawk platform has better survivability and situational awareness and can fly higher and carry more than its predecessors ever did.
The Multi-mission UH-60M is the latest in the Black Hawk helicopter product family, more capable, more survivable, more maintainable, more powerful and more effective than its predecessors. The Black Hawk helicopter has proven itself both in combat and peace time missions.
Chucking the UH-60 key
One interesting thing about the Black Hawk is that it needs a key to be turned on, as Christian Fitzgerald former US Army UH-60 crew chief, explains on Quora;
‘One fairly popular prank in Army Aviation involves brand new crew chiefs. (In the Army, Black Hawk crew chiefs fly just behind the pilots, but have no input into the aircraft controls.)
‘One pilot will bring up something he’s upset with, usually involving the other pilot or the unit. He’ll start complaining for a while until the other pilot starts arguing with him. They’ll get into a heated fight, then one pilot says something to the effect of, “F— this sh–!”
‘He then reaches for the key [In a few instances, crewmembers have tried to steal aircraft. Not smart, but it happens. Anyway, since operations has to check out the keys to the pilot in command, it helps prevent people from making dumb decisions], turns it to the off position, removes it, and chucks it over his shoulder into the aircraft’s cabin. For the record, the Black Hawk has no issues flying without its key once it’s running, but the new crew chief has no way of knowing that. On a related note, the collective stick is what controls the elevation of the aircraft and if you lower it, the aircraft will drop like a rock out of the sky.’
Fitzgerald concludes;
‘The other pilot then dumps the collective, and the helicopter starts falling nearly straight down, all while the other, more experienced crew chief yells at the new one, “Grab the key or we’re all going to die!” After a brief fall, they’ll recover the aircraft and reveal that it was a joke. Some people don’t find it funny, surprisingly.’
Photo credit: U.S. Army
